Slow down to go FASTER

To make this new new financial year your best ever, it may be time to take try a new approach. Instead of trying to speed up, learn to slow down.

When I was 19 I rode a motorbike. Then I did this course where we rode around a real racetrack. After half an hour, Richard our riding instructor said “Get up to 100kph, then brake as hard as you can.” So I did. He told me “It took you 44 meters. Daniel, you are a danger to yourself and others. Let’s show you how to brake properly.”

By the time he’d finished I was getting up to 100kph and braking in just 19 meters.

Then just as I was starting to feel good about my achievement, he said “Back on the track, let’s time you again.” That good feeling evaporated. I knew that with all that braking I’d have caught ‘slow-disease’.

Anyhow, I did another lap. And there was Richard, beaming. “Seven seconds faster”.

I couldn’t believe it.

By learning to slow down, I’d learnt to speed up.

Why?

Well, because I could slow down more effectively, I could accelerate up each straight for longer. That meant I spent more time at a higher speed, and in more control too.

In life, that whirring engine is your mind; the ‘track’ is your outer world of activity. When you learn to slow down – not only do you make life less anxious for yourself and others; your performance improves ‘on the track’.

This year, stop trying to do more; start mastering how to slow down. This is the secret to gaining more success and less stress at the same time.

Words by Daniel Batten. Daniel is an entrepreneur and entrepreneur coach, launching and helping launch three separate New Zealand $15–$120M valuation tech companies.